Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf by Edward Albee was presented at the Le Petit Théâtre on the Seminole College Campus. Actor Stephen Lewis had suggested I sketch a performance. Stephen helped me find the sound technician who mixed a surround sound track for my film COVID Dystopia.
Who’s Afraid of Viginia Wolf won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1963, and is considered one of the most important American plays of the 20th Century. Martha and George, a middle-aged couple, have a complicated and contentious marriage. After a university faculty event, they invite a new biology professor and his wife over for a late night of entertainment.
Martha and George spar all evening like two seasoned gladiators taking endless jabs at one another and dragging the young couple into their unfolding drama.
Freshman year of college I was asked to read this play and it convinced me that I would never want to become a university professor with hopes of tenure. The play was three hours long with two intermissions, so there was plenty of time to sketch. I looked around to see if there was any HEPA filtration for the air in the small black box theater. Since I didn’t see anything, I was masked for the length of the performance. An online student told me just before I left for this performance that her friend had just caught COVID and she felt she might be coming down with it as well. She had been infected about three times so far. A couple in front of me were coughing off an on. They say the goal of a good performance is to keep the audience from coughing. It is hard to do that in a pandemic.
The performances in this production were stellar. The angst and a light spark of affection between George and Martha was palpable as they pushed each others buttons. The young and ambitious professor tried to keep up with George but he fell victim to the vicious mental acrobatics that ensued. I wish I could convince more people to go and see this production, but unfortunately the show run is over.